"Human Rights Watch" More Concerned About Condoms Than Killings

The Kaiser Family Foundation reports today that Human Rights Watch (HRW) is in full attack mode about the mere specter of abstinence-based education in Uganda:

The New York-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch in a report released on Wednesday criticized the Ugandan government for "making a worrying shift" toward focusing its HIV/AIDS prevention efforts on U.S.-funded abstinence-only education programs, in effect undermining efforts to promote condom use, the AP/Independent Online reports. In the 80-page report -- titled "The Less They Know, the Better: Abstinence-Only HIV/AIDS Programs in Uganda" -- HRW accuses Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and his wife, Janet, of "falling under the influence of U.S. Christian conservatives" and putting "millions" of Ugandan residents at risk of contracting HIV by focusing primarily on abstinence in prevention programs, according to the AP/Independent Online (Wasswa, AP/Independent Online, 3/29).

This captures perfectly the priorities of Liberals: they would rather prattle on in an 80 page report against abstinence education in a country - while completely ignoring that the dictator there is murdering and terrorizing his political oponents, as noted here and here in just this past week alone.

Meanwhile, Kaiser seriously undercuts the premise of the so-called "Human" Rights Watch report, noting:

Officials and church leaders in Uganda called the HRW report "seriously flawed," saying it lacks "factual basis," according to the AP/Independent Online (AP/Independent Online, 3/29). "The president and the first lady are being misunderstood," Museveni spokesperson Onapito Ekomoloit said, adding, "They have been consistent in advocating for a multipronged approach. [Museveni] says those who are sexually active should be faithful. Others should abstain, and those who cannot abstain should use condoms" (Guardian, 3/30). Dr. Alex Opio, assistant commissioner for Uganda's National Disease Control, said there has been "no change" in the government's approach to HIV/AIDS prevention, according to NewVision/AllAfrica.com. "The government policy is A for abstinence, B for be faithful and C for condoms," he said (New Vision/AllAfrica.com, 3/28). Opio also denied that the Ugandan government "discourag[es]" the use of condoms, adding that it imports 80 million of the 120 million condoms used in the country annually, according to AFP/Yahoo! News (AFP/Yahoo! News, 3/29).

HIV/AIDS education succeeds in Uganda utilizing the A-B-C method

Urbane Analysis: When I was in Uganda this past year, visiting two to three schools every day for two solid weeks, it was made clear to me (time and again) that the A-B-C approach to HIV/AIDS prevention education was what they use. Everywhere. Without exception. Got that, "Human" Rights Watch? Catch a clue: Uganda is in human rights meltdown. Get to work protecting human life, you can opine on behalf of false alarms designed to shake the money tree all you want (for all I care) AFTER the hit squads are cleaned out and true oppositon-based (can you say... Forum for Democratic Change) fair elections are part of the political fabric. Transparency, accountability, do these things mean anything to HRW - if you recall, we Americans just had an election about VALUES, not Liberal-Fundamentalist canards.